Practice infinite loving-kindness in all worlds, and have no resentment or hostility towards the ten directions above and below, so as to achieve freedom from obstacles. - "Loving-kindness Sutra"
Care of the Sick Bhikkhu
Once, the Buddha and the bhikkhus traveled to Rajgir, the capital of Magadha, and stayed at the Bamboo Grove Monastery in the Kalanda Bamboo Garden on the northern outskirts of the city.
At that time, there was a bhikkhu in Rajgir who was seriously ill. He was so ill that he could not even get up to urinate or defecate, but no other bhikkhus came to visit and take care of him. He was left lying in bed complaining day and night: "Why does the Buddha have no pity on me?"
The Buddha heard the complaints and calls of the sick bhikkhu with his divine ears, and said to the bhikkhus: "I will go with you to the various dormitories and see where you live."
Using this as an excuse, the Buddha took everyone to the sick bhikkhu's dormitories. The sick bhikkhu struggled to get up to greet the Buddha, but he could not get up.
Buddha stopped him and said, "Just lie down! Bhikkhu! Don't get up. I can find a seat by myself. Is your illness better?"
"Bhikkhu! My illness is getting worse."
"Bhikkhu! Where are your caregivers? Has anyone come to visit you?"
"No, Bhikkhu! No one has come to visit me since I got sick."
"Bhikkhu! When you were not sick, did you often visit other patients?"
"No, Bhikkhu!"
"Bhikkhu! You don't usually visit patients, so you don't get anyone to take care of you today. Bhikkhu! Don't be afraid now. I will take care of you myself and make sure you don't lack anything. Although my achievements are the highest in heaven and on earth today, I can also take care of any patient: give care to those who cannot get care; be the eyes of the blind; save the sick."
After saying this, Buddha personally cleaned up his excrement, scrubbed his body, changed his clothes and sheets, made his bed, cleaned the room, and fed him with his own hands. After doing all this, the Buddha took this opportunity to teach the Bhikkhu:
"Bhikkhu! You should abandon the great disease of the three-life cycle. How should I say this? When you are born, there is the disaster of being unable to be free in the womb.
After birth, there is the suffering of old age, illness and death. When a person gets old, his physiological functions deteriorate, and illness and pain follow. Sick people lie or sit on the ground and groan, and various symptoms follow one after another, and finally they cannot escape death.
After death, the consciousness and the body fall apart, and then they are reborn in a good or evil place.
Those who have committed many sins are reborn in extremely painful hells. Some are reborn as animals, driven by people and suffer a lot. Some are reborn as hungry ghosts with a lifespan of several kalpas. Their throats and esophagus are as thin as needles, making it difficult to swallow food, and they are often whipped.
Those with good fortune are reborn in a long lifespan. Even if you reach heaven for several kalpas, you will still suffer from the pain of separation and the difficulty of satisfying your desires.
Only those who practice the path of the sages can be free from suffering.
There are nine kinds of people who are free from suffering, namely, arhats, arhat-like, anagami, anagami-like, sakadagami, sakadagami-like, sotapanna, sotapanna-like, and those who are practicing and are close to becoming a Sotapanna but have not yet reached that state. These are all disciples of the Tathagata.
Therefore, the appearance of the Tathagata is really rare; being born as a human being, and being born in a place where you can hear the Dharma; being able to meet good teachers; being able to hear the Dharma is an even rarer opportunity.
You should understand: Now the Tathagata is preaching the Dharma in the world, and you have no physical defects to hear the Dharma. If you do not work hard to practice and study, and lose such an opportunity, it will be too late to regret. This is my instruction. "
After this instruction, the sick monk attained liberation and his illness was much better.
After the Buddha returned, he asked Venerable Ananda to gather the monks near Rajgir and publicly formulated a care system for sick members of the Sangha: if a sick monk has no disciples, everyone should take turns to take care of him.
From the 44th Chapter 7 of the Anguttara Āgama
The Desire based on me and centered on me
During the time when Sakyamuni Buddha was alive and preaching, one day he passed by a village called Uruvilva. The village chief heard that Buddha often taught people to know and eliminate suffering. He admired Buddha and went to see him to ask for the Dharma.
The village chief asked Buddha about the causes of suffering and the way to eliminate suffering. The Buddha asked the village chief: "When people in your village are killed, arrested, punished, or reprimanded, do you feel worried, lamented, painful, or unhappy?"
The village chief replied: "Of course I will worry, lament, feel painful, and unhappy for the people I love and care about, but not for those who are not related to me. If something happens to my wife and children, I will naturally be more worried."
The Buddha said: "By analogy of the past and the future, we can know that all kinds of suffering of sentient beings are rooted in the desire based on me and centered on me. The suffering born from it, gathered from it, caused by it, and conditioned by it. If there is no desire based on me and centered on me, there will be no sorrow and suffering. A person without sorrow and suffering is as detached as a lotus out of water." After hearing this, the village chief immediately stayed away from dust and dirt, no longer doubted, no longer feared, and took refuge in the Three Jewels.
Buddha told everyone that with desire based on me and centered on me, there will be sorrow, sadness, trouble, and suffering. These words reached the ears of King Prasenajit, who was skeptical and discussed it with his wife, Queen Mallika.
Queen Mallika was a devout Buddhist disciple. She asked King Prasenajit, "If I have any misfortune, what will you do?" King Prasenajit replied, "Then I will be sad, cry, worry, worry, and regret!" Queen Mallika said, "Yes, these sufferings are caused by desire based on me and centered on me."
——Selected from the "Saṃyukta Āgama"
Once the object of desire changes, pain follows. However, everything in the world is impermanent, and the object of desire is also changing, and it will also experience birth, aging, sickness, death and various separations. Therefore, desire based on me and centered on me is the root of troubles and pain, and this is the truth.
If doing something will have unwholesome, sinful consequences that are condemned by wise people, or will lead to attachment and thus cause useless suffering, then it should be abandoned.
A truly liberated person can attain desirelessness not because of belief; can be at peace with detachment not for fame, wealth, or gain; can achieve non-contention not for the sake of not breaking the precepts. A liberated person is happy with desirelessness, detachment, non-contention, the end of love, detachment, and the immovability of the mind because of the end of greed, anger, and delusion. A bhikkhu whose mind is truly liberated will not lose liberation because of what he sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches, or thinks. When a liberated person perceives the environment with the six senses, his mind will not be captured by the environment, but will always remain pure and unmixed, firm and unmoved. He can observe the impermanence of birth and death according to its causes and conditions, and observe the nature of nirvana in impermanence, just like a solid rock mountain that cannot be shaken or moved no matter which direction the wind and rain blow.
If there are sentient beings in the world who are partial to lust, indulge in sensual pleasures, and cannot extricate themselves, as long as they can often respectfully chant the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, they can be free from the harm of lust; if there are sentient beings in the world who are hot-tempered, often angry, resentful of others, and cannot be pure, as long as they can often respectfully chant the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, they can be free from the harm of anger; if there are sentient beings in the world who have dark minds, do not understand things, often think they are right, and are stubborn, as long as they can often respectfully chant the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, they can be free from the poison of ignorance. Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva has such great power and is very beneficial to sentient beings. Therefore, we should often think of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva in our hearts and silently chant the holy name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.
Body, Feelings, Mind, and Mind Objects
Remain in a state where:
We focus on observing our body, our feelings, our mind, and the objects of our mind as they are.
Whether it is inside or outside of ourselves, or whether it is mixed up inside and outside, we observe it with steady, clear awareness, mindfulness.
In this way, we can subdue greed and sorrow.
This is enlightenment by relying on ourselves and the right method, not on anyone or anything else.
A scholar named Wu from Ningbo liked to hang out with prostitutes. Later, he fell in love with a fox girl and often met with her, but Wu still frequented brothels. One day, the fox girl asked him, "I can transform myself. Any woman you like, I can immediately change into her appearance after just one look. When you think of her, I can transform into her and appear in front of you. Isn't that better than spending a fortune to buy smiles?" Wu tried it, and the fox girl really changed her appearance in an instant, looking exactly like a real person. So he stopped going out. Scholar Wu once said to the fox girl, "Now I am sleeping with flowers and willows, I am so happy. But it's a pity that these are still illusions. I always feel a layer of separation in my heart when I think about them." The fox girl said, "You are wrong. The happiness of sound and color is as short-lived as lightning. It is not only the women I transform into that are illusions, but also the one you like is originally an illusion. Not only these women are illusions, but I am also an illusion. Even the famous beauties over thousands of years are illusions. The white poplars and green grass, the loess and green mountains, are all places for singing and dancing in ancient times. The joy of holding rain and clouds when alive, the sorrow of separation when alive and dead, this is... These are just as short as stretching your arms. Two people can be together for a few minutes, a few days, a few months, or a few years, but there will be a day when they will say goodbye forever. When it comes to parting, no matter if they have been together for decades or just met for a moment, it is all the same, letting go of the cliff and disappearing in an instant. Leaning against the green and the red, it all seems like a spring dream. Even if the fate is deep and they stay together for life, time flies, the face of youth is no longer there, and white hair gradually grows, and the same person is no longer the same as before. Then her beauty at that time can also be said to be an illusion, not just me turning into someone else. "Scholar Wu seemed to have a great enlightenment all of a sudden. A few years later, the fox girl left him, and Scholar Wu never went to the romantic field again.
--Ji Xiaolan
All good things must come to an end
Three months before the Buddha passed away at the age of eighty, Venerable Sariputra returned to his hometown, the village of Nara in Magadha, where he was born, and settled there. He fell seriously ill and passed away and entered Nirvana.
The novice monk Cunda, who took care of him, arranged the funeral of Venerable Sariputra, took Venerable Sariputra's clothes, bell, and cremated bones, and came to the Jetavana Grove in Savatthi to report to Venerable Ananda:
"Venerable! My teacher Venerable Sariputra has entered Nirvana. I brought his bones, clothes and bell he used when he was alive, all here."
Venerable Ananda was very sad when he heard this, and brought the novice monk Cunda to see the Buddha and said to the Buddha:
"World-honored One! The novice monk Cunda said that Venerable Sariputra has entered Nirvana. Hearing this news, I feel as if my body is about to be dismembered. I feel dizzy and confused, and all the Dharma I have learned is useless. ”
The Buddha asked Venerable Ananda:
“Ananda! When Sariputra passed away, did he take away the ‘precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and insight of liberation’? Did the teachings I have given since I became a Buddha, such as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Four Right Efforts, the Four Immeasurables, the Five Roots, the Five Powers, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, and the Noble Eightfold Path, all disappear with Shariputra’s Nirvana?”
Venerable Ananda replied:
“No! However, with the Venerable Sariputra’s diligent practice and wisdom, when he was around, he was able to give powerful teachings according to people’s different aptitudes, and he often praised and encouraged everyone. I am sad and distressed because of the loss of Venerable Sariputra because of the Dharma and the people who received his teachings. ”
The Buddha told the Venerable Ananda:
“Ananda! Don’t be sad and distressed. Why? How can the impermanent dharma that arises from the gathering of causes and conditions not be destroyed? Everything we love will leave us and cannot be preserved.
For example, a big tree will break first from the big branches; a big treasure mountain will collapse first from the big rocks; the disciples of the Tathagata will enter Nirvana first from the biggest disciples of the voice-hearers. Sariputra can teach the public on my behalf. Where he is, it is as if I am there. In this way, I can be at ease. But all things that go well with you will eventually disperse. Don’t be poisoned by sorrow because of the dispersion of what you love.
Ananda! You should know that even the Tathagata will soon enter Nirvana.
Therefore, Ananda! You should regard yourself as a continent to rely on;
Respect the Dharma as a place to rely on, and there is no other continent to rely on. How can one make oneself a continent that can be relied on? What kind of Dharma is a continent that can be relied on?
Ananda! One should abide in the Dharma based on the body, feelings, thoughts, and the objects of thoughts, and practice concentration and true awareness. Whether it is internal or external, or internal and external, one should use a warm attitude, clear awareness, and clear thoughts to subdue worldly greed and sorrow. This is relying on oneself, relying on the Dharma, and not relying on others.
Ananda! Whether it is now or after my death, one can abide in relying on oneself and taking oneself as refuge; abide in relying on the Dharma and taking the Dharma as refuge, and not taking others as refuge. This is the monk who is most diligent in practice among my disciples. "
Taken from the "Sutra of the 638th Volume of the Saṃyukta Āgama", "Sutra of the 47th Volume of the Samyuktagama Nikaya" and "Sutra of the 26th Volume of the Ekottara Agama".